Help needed on foobar

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Sunderpalanivel

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Hi Guys,

I have been using iTunes so far for my computer based music, my friends in this forum advised that foobar on windows based machine will be better options, so to check the difference I have installed foobar wasapi today and downloaded few FLAC tracks from HDTracks. When I try to play the music, it keeps breaking. i.e it plays few seconds and then gets stuck for few seconds and then again plays and again gets stuck. Have any of you faced this issue ? Please help me with this. My system configuration as below.:sad:

Windows 7, intel i3 processor, 2 GB RAM.

Thanks,
Sunder.
 
Your system configuration is more than sufficient for Foobar. Let us know the file that you are playing as well as other components like the DAC, output setup in Foobar. I play HD FLAC files in my Foobar and it plays very smoothly on my Audio-GD DAC. More details on the setup you can find in this link http://www.head-fi.org/a/foobar2000-a-guide-to-set-up.
 
With Foobar never had any problems.Even when I was using XP.I tried so many options from,Wasapi,Direct sound,ASIO,never was an issue.I played with D2X soundcard,Yamaha AVR(via HDMI),digital out to DAC,everything is perfect.Make sure that all files are downloaded totally.partial downloaded files may have issue.Also check your output setting again.
 
Sunderpalanivel said:
Hi Guys,

I have been using iTunes so far for my computer based music, my friends in this forum advised that foobar on windows based machine will be better options, so to check the difference I have installed foobar wasapi today and downloaded few FLAC tracks from HDTracks. When I try to play the music, it keeps breaking. i.e it plays few seconds and then gets stuck for few seconds and then again plays and again gets stuck. Have any of you faced this issue ? Please help me with this. My system configuration as below.:sad:

Windows 7, intel i3 processor, 2 GB RAM.

Thanks,
Sunder.
Click to expand...
Same issue was there with my windows 7 laptop, so I started using other laptop with windows 8 and it is working fine.
After talking to my DAC company, they suggested to reinstall windows sound driver again, but I did not do so...because of dont have time apart from listening to music..:lol:
 
sunder,

on foobar Ctrl + P the Playback - Output - check the buffer time

play with it and maybe you may solve it.

I am no expert on Foobar or computer audio i play my flacs on foobar on my Win 7 laptop and it works just fine.

maybe folks with more experience can chip in.

mpw
 
^^ Sunder, this should fix the issue indeed, particularly if you have WASAPI enabled.

Also, since you mentioned that you're playing music from HDTracks, you're probably playing hi-res. Have you enabled any on-the-fly bitrate/resolution converter components of any sort in Foobar? If you have, do have a look at those settings too.
 
hydra said:
^^ Sunder, this should fix the issue indeed, particularly if you have WASAPI enabled.
Have you enabled any on-the-fly bitrate/resolution converter components of any sort in Foobar? If you have, do have a look at those settings too.
Click to expand...

No I have not done anything like that, could you please shed some light on this. How can I set it to on the fly bitrate.

Cheers,
Sunder.
 
Sunder, you can install the SoX resampler component into Foobar. This allows for on the fly resampling (upsampling and downsampling). I think there are other resampler components available too.

I've used it for a very short while. I did not keep it, as I could not make out any difference with the setup I used to have then. If could not make out a difference, I thought I might as well leave the data untouched, heh heh. I stopped using Foobar quite a while back. I use (and prefer) JRMC on my Music PC now.

EDIT: The SoX FAQ, for more info: http://sox.sourceforge.net/Docs/FAQ
 
Last edited:
In the windows world, Foobar would still be my media player of choice, but I left that world some time back, so have nothing useful to say on Foobar today, except perhaps...

Are you guys aware that the support/development/etc forum for foobar is at Hydrogenaudio?

Well, yes, you probably were --- but it might be useful for any passing newcomer :)
 
Last edited:
Sunderpalanivel said:
Hi Guys,

I have been using iTunes so far for my computer based music, my friends in this forum advised that foobar on windows based machine will be better options, so to check the difference I have installed foobar wasapi today and downloaded few FLAC tracks from HDTracks. When I try to play the music, it keeps breaking. i.e it plays few seconds and then gets stuck for few seconds and then again plays and again gets stuck. Have any of you faced this issue ? Please help me with this. My system configuration as below.:sad:

Windows 7, intel i3 processor, 2 GB RAM.

Thanks,
Sunder.
Click to expand...

This very surprising. Shouldn't be the case. I (purposefully) use a low configuration (by current standards) machine for playing music on Windows. I use the same software compliment as well, never had any issues with it.

I'm sure this is a configuration issue, even more likely not relate to Foobar at all. Default buffer on Foobar is 2000ms (2 seconds) and that is enough cover. So changing the buffer length may not be the best way forward, even if that fixes the problem. But to get a handle on the issue increase that to 10000ms and see if the problem disappears.

Though I'd recommend reinstall your operating system and try with the OOTB configuration. There is no reason why foobar should stutter playing FLACs on a well-specified machine.
 
ranjeetrain said:
T...
Though I'd recommend reinstall your operating system and try with the OOTB configuration. There is no reason why foobar should stutter playing FLACs on a well-specified machine.
Click to expand...

Yes, this should take care of any DPC latency issues, and any Windows-related issues too if any, I think.

DPC Latency Checker
That's a free latency checking tool. I don't know how to use it really, but I think Thad here has had his share of latency related issues :p , so he might be able to help, if latency is the culprit here.

EDIT: Instructions for use of the DPC Latency Checker are available here.

But well, if you can do a clean-install, nothing like that. Always great for a Windows machine!
 
Last edited:
Sunderpalanivel said:
In mine it is 1000ms by default
Click to expand...

My bad! It's indeed 1000ms :o

Did you try increasing the limit? Seems to help?


hydra said:
Yes, this should take care of any DPC latency issues, and any Windows-related issues too if any, I think.

DPC Latency Checker
That's a free latency checking tool. I don't know how to use it really, but I think Thad here has had his share of latency related issues :p , so he might be able to help, if latency is the culprit here.

EDIT: Instructions for use of the DPC Latency Checker are available here.

But well, if you can do a clean-install, nothing like that. Always great for a Windows machine!
Click to expand...

That's a very easy to run software. Just run it and it plots the latency. However, it is a useful tool only in case there is/are misbehaving apps/components. Also the Win 8 version has issues, but Win 7 version works very well.
 
DPC Latency is a specific kind of latency. The tool will show whether it is a problem or not. If it is, then it is possible that it may interfere with certain hardware combinations and not with others. The machine that made me suffer (and I mean suffer!) from it would work fine with the MB built-in, but it would not work with my PCI card or the Firewire interface I bought hoping that it would escape the problem.

It is certainly a potential source of stuttering, drop-outs, clicks, etc.

It is like a kind of cancer to audio, and unless there are "obvious" culprits like wireless networking cards, that can be disabled, I'm afraid that the prognosis can be terminal. Like... buy a new machine/motherboard. :(

Given that it is such a serious problem, it is very surprising that it is not widely known. It ought to be a part of every motherboard review!

The tool will tell you if you have it. Google may help you find machines that don't have it. ISTR a thread, maybe on Gearslutz.
 
Also the Win 8 version has issues said:
As I described earlier,foobar in my windows 8 is working perfectly and in windows 7 not.
This problem is not related to version of windows rather it is related to drivers of your laptop. either you have to reinstall drivers or reinstall windows that is the only solution IMO.

Cheers

Dheeraj
Click to expand...
 
reignofchaos said:
Are you trying to stream over wifi? In that case, enable full file buffering as gvenu pointed out. Also make sure your output renderer is Wasapi Event Style.
Click to expand...

Im not streaming over wifi. Playing directly from laptop. Using WASAI event. Even uninstalled the Anti virus, still no luck :sad:

I can see this laptop is so slow even scrolling through menus, start bar and changing mouse position takes time. May be I need another system. I have a mac too, any player I can use in Mac that won't screw things up like iTunes ? iTunes can't play FLAC
 
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